Donald Trump's Action Hero Swagger Was His Secret Weapon

The way Trump handled himself during the campaign appeared to many as shameless bravado. But for many voters, it came across as badass heroism.

Did you ever see Dirty Harry? Sweater-rocking, gun-toting, perpetually-scowling Clint Eastwood playing the token Loose Cannon Detective who stomps angrily around San Francisco, torturing suspects and ignoring orders and shooting pretty much everyone in sight, all in the service of justice? Harry would have spend a lot of time on unpaid disciplinary leave if he were working today, but he sure could deliver a badass monologue while standing over his vanquished foes. All this dude could do about it was shake his head in disbelief.

For the last two years, Donald Trump has been gleefully playing the Dirty Harry role to the fullest. Trump is a dangerous, reckless, unpredictable man. You knew it the moment he opened his mouth, and it never occurred to you to think anything else. The aggrieved pitchforks-and-torches crowd, though, saw something entirely different: an action hero, a certified American badass who confidently sauntered into the room knowing exactly what needed to be done. America had become weak and inefficient, helmed by complacent leaders who were unable to do something about it. The solution to this wasn’t “empirically supported policy analyses.” To become great again, he argued, America needed to sack up and elect a good ol’ tough guy who is all out of bubblegum. This is a familiar, romantic narrative that Americans have seen hundreds of times. You underestimated him, dear Coastal Liberal, because you missed this appeal altogether.

Even when plot holes emerged, Trump’s captivating act allowed him to simply power through. Hillary Clinton spent copious amounts of time and effort outlining the specific things she would do as chief executive. She had to do it this way because she bore the deeply unfair burden of reassuring voters that a woman could do a job previously held only by men. Trump, like any proper action hero dude, never had to prove a damn thing. He could get away with barking out under-explained orders, looking the part, and “telling it like it is.” When he was pressed on details, he shrugged, evaded, and then reiterated his bottom line: he was a winner. You’ve seen the ending of this movie. He wins. How? Who cares? He’ll figure the details out when he gets there.

Pitching himself as a swashbuckling action hero allowed Trump to overcome what would otherwise be his obvious weaknesses. This bravado convinced working-class Rust Belt voters that he, a New York City real estate heir, understood them better than anyone else. It persuaded voters that there were no drawbacks to the plan of fixing the federal government by bringing in a person who has no experience whatsoever with it. His myriad personal flaws were just unimportant subplots, charming reminders of his brand of capital-R realness to which you were impervious. Americans didn’t follow every single little thing that Jack Bauer did during a given season of 24. They just wanted to be sure that the season ended with him crushing the country’s enemies one more time.

This masterful long con is not the only reason he won. Tuesday’s results again laid bare the suffocating racism and sexism that permeate American society. But even among millions of voters who are not active or aspiring members of the Ku Klux Klan, Trump succeeded anyway by disguising his bigotry in the defiant fearlessness that Americans expect of their stars. Most importantly, he stuck with it even when his takes were derided as offensive, correctly gambling that there were enough frustrated people who would get behind that cause if only a candidate would emerge who was brave enough to throw the rules aside. The president-elect of the United States ran on the explicit promise to get rid of as many brown people as possible, and his unwavering swagger ensured his success.

At every opportunity, the GOP nominee has proven himself to be an uninformed boor who is probably unfit to handle a lunch order, much less serve as America’s Commander in Chief. He won anyway, though, because he quickly grasped that if he ran the con just right, confidence could prevail over competence. This resolute cool was his invisible strength. Hillary Clinton spent two years painstakingly trying to prove to voters that she was the best candidate. Donald Trump knew that if he acted like he had already succeeded at that task long ago, enough people, eventually, would fall for it.

Spoiler: Dirty Harry ends with Clint Eastwood’s character fulfilling his mission, but only after Harry, staring down a bad guy who was using a hostage as a human shield, shoots the bad guy anyway. He miraculously hits his intended target instead of killing the absolutely terrified kid, but still, it works only because you knew all along that it would end well. The act is over now, though. As Trump prepares to take office and make critical decisions and actually be real-life president, he won’t be able to just follow a script any longer. For all of our sakes, I sure hope he knows it.

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